Mal and Ben ~ Parenthood

Night time

"Mommy?" Mal heard her daughter call for her, as she almost ran out of the bathroom to find her woken up from her nap. She seemed happy as she gestured for Mal to pick her up.

She still seemed tired, which was to be expected after the day they had had. Ben had taken some time off to spend when them, and they had been outside doing all kind of stuff all day, and the nap she had just had, had not been very long. But Mal knew better than to try and make her fall asleep again, she would just have to go to bed a bit early if it seemed like she needed it later.

"Did you have a nice sleep?" Mal asked her, messing up her curly blonde purple hair, while looking for some clothes to put on her.

She didn't respond but instead just placed her head on Mal's shoulder, seeming too tired to do anything.

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep a bit more?" She asked her, knowing very well what the answer would be, "You can sleep in my arms if you want."

But just as expected the answer was a very loud no.

"Okay okay, just asking," Mal smiled.
-

The rest of the day was very uneventful. Lily was playing a bit, but seemed too tired to really want to, so they ended up just watching a movie, while waiting for Ben to return.

Normally when he did, Lily's face would lit up and she would stretch out her arms for him to pick her up, but today she just kept her eyes on the screen, barely noticing him coming.

Ben looked at Mal before going to the side were she was sitting and picked her up, "Don't I get any hello today?" He asked, tickling her a bit.

The sound of her giggle filled the room, and she quickly gave in to giving him her usual hug.

Ben sat down beside Mal with Lily in his arms, still embraced in a hug, "Isn't she unusually tired?" He asked.

"Well, I guess that happens sometimes," Mal answered, "I guess I should put her to bed soon. What time is it?"

Ben looked at the time before answering, "6:30."

"Well that's a bit early but I guess it's fine, she didn't sleep as much as she should today."

Ben pulled Lily a bit away from him, so he could look at her face, "What do you say we go to bed now. I'll read you a very good story."

"No," she said, placing her head back on Ben's shoulder.

"Okay then, we'll just brush your teeth and get you ready, okay?"

Lily was still pouting, but didn't protest as Ben did just that.

He returned with her a few moments later, which meant she hadn't been protesting too much.
But when he tried to place her down the cries started. Ben picked her back up, and held her in his arms for a while. "I know you're tired sweetheart, but the best thing for that is to get some sleep."

Her cries didn't fade at this words, if anything they grew louder. Mal picked up her favorite toy from the ground and placed it in her arms. But she threw it away much rather wanting to hug her father.

It was always hard for Mal knowing she was doing something against her daughters own will, no matter how much it was something that needed to be done.

"Lily, you have to go to sleep," Ben told her, as he was rocking her in his arms.

A no escaped from her cries, so Ben continued talking.

"Don't cry," he said, "Its okay, I also go to sleep every night, it makes you feel so much better when you wake up." But his words didn't seem to convince her in any possible way, as she kept crying.

After a long time of crying, it finally began to fade out as her eyes slowly started to close. At this point Ben was standing with her in his arms in the middle of the room, and Mal was holding her little hand in hers, carefully stroking her hair, on the top of her head which was laying on Ben's shoulder.

Ben was quietly singing a song to her, that seemed to do the wonders. As her eyes were completely closed, her cries gone, and her breathing normal, Ben placed her back down, giving her a kiss on the forehead, and whispered a goodnight.

"Well, that went well," he said to Mal. They both smiled at each other quietly laughing, being really careful not to wake Lily up.
-

Mal couldn't really fall asleep that night, and as she finally did, she was woken up by her daughters voice. She was standing up looking at her, with a few tears left from last night in her eyes. Mal picked her up placing her between her and Ben in the bed. She then quickly fell asleep again, and Mal this time did too.

When she woke up in the morning Lily was still sleeping, so she didn't get up afraid she might wake her, knowing she needed her sleep right now. Ben was also sleeping but she could tell he had been awake earlier, because his arm were placed around Lily. She was so happy that this had become her life. Back on the isle she would have never dreamt of something this wonderful to happen to her. She had a family now. A family were they all loved each other. She had the most amazing friends, and she just knew she would never wish for anything else in her entire life. Not to say she didn't love all that, but Lily by sure was the most amazing thing of those. She had never known it was possibly to love someone this much. The feeling that just told that whatever happened, whatever she would do or say could never change how much she loved her. How she would give up everything just to see her be happy, or to make sure she was okay. It sometimes made her wonder if her mom her ever felt that way about her, or if her hate had been such a big part of her that those feeling had no way of coming out. But during this last year those thoughts had stopped mattering to her. She had everything she needed now, so she had no need to look back to how the past could have been better. Everything was as she wanted them to be.

She knew Lily was awake before she had even opened her eyes, so she pulled her out of Ben's and into her own arms. She seemed so much happier today, which just proved to Mal that it had been the right thing to do, even though it had caused cries from her baby girl.

"Wake up daddy," she said to her, as she went over to wake him up, but fell over his arm in the process and woke him up by that.

Ben was quickly to react, and pulled her up into a big hug, making Lily giggle as he placed her back down again.

This was the moments that Mal loved the most. Just the three of them as a family, enjoying every single moment together.